Rural hospitals face a high hurdle in acquiring sophisticated health information technologies (HIT) while also remaining financially viable. One way for these institutions to address the challenge is to outsource the design and maintenance of HIT infrastructure not to traditional vendors, but to a larger, more technologically advanced hospital in their region. The viability of this hospital-to-hospital HIT partnership model, which has been used with success in a rural region of Pennsylvania, will be the focus of a three-state survey of rural hospitals. Project staff also will conduct case studies of three rural hospitals that have partnered with a regional hospital to identify factors that lead to success and examine the impact on patient care, the economic benefits, and the challenges involved. As the federal government takes steps to diffuse HIT nationwide, the findings of this project will inform the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology about innovative approaches.

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Grant Details

Grantee Organization:
Pennsylvania State University

Principal Investigator:
Madhu Reddy, Ph.D.

Award Amount:
$240,754.00

Approval Date:
April 28, 2010

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Mission

The mission of The Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.